Maryland Crab and Potato Soup
Recipe by Jack Goldstone
Ingredients
4 sticks of celery (sliced in spoon friendly slices)
1 pound of potatoes
4 tomatoes
1½ quarts chicken stock
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cooking oil
½ to 1 pound crab meat (lump or jumbo lumb)
3 oz tomato paste
2½ tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons potato starch mixed with 5 tablespoons cold water (for thickening at the end of the cook)
Salt, pepper and Old Bay to taste
Fresh chives or green onions (for garnish)
Directions
Bring a pot of water to boil over high heat. Peel the potatoes and boil until tender, then mash.
Cut a cross through the skin of each tomato and then place in a heat friendly bowl, cover with boiling water and leave out until cool. Once cool enough to handle, peel off skins and then core. Discard seeds and dice the flesh
Heat stock until boiling
In your favorite soup pot, heat half of your butter and mix with half of your cooking oil, then add your crab meat. Cook until hot and fragrant, then remove from heat and set aside.
Over high heat, heat remaining butter and oil in the same pot and cook your tomatoes and celery, stirring until fragrant. Add your tomato paste and stir until fragrant. Add your hot stock and mashed potatoes and bring to a boil, being sure to press and disperse your potatoes.
Then add your crabmeat and season to taste with salt, pepper and old bay. Stir
Create your starch mixture and stir in a little at a time until you reach your desired thickness. Serve with a generous amount of fresh cracked pepper, and your freshly chopped chives
Note from Jack
This is largely Fuchsia Dunlop’s 蟹粉番茄土豆浓汤(XieFen FanQie TuDou NongTang). For the western world she was a pioneer in recognizing the value and splendor of Chinese cooking, and was the first foreigner to graduate from Sichuan's most prestigious culinary school. I have a couple of her brilliant cookbooks that I reference all the time. Mainly Land of Fish and Rice and The Food of Sichuan, and I’m very excited to get my hands on her new release Invitation to a Banquet.
